And they were closing around him apparently to put their threat into execution, when he retreated, rather more precipitately than became the dignity of his fine sword-knot, and gilded epaulets, and was followed by a general laugh. I was the more surprised at such a burst of popular resentment, because the town is exclusively military, and under the immediate control of the army and navy; it was the old spirit of English freedom.

tants.

The streets of Portsmouth are dirty, and the town presents little that is pleasing or interesting beyond the various means of war, of which it is little else than a great magazine. It contains about, thirty two thousand inhabiOn an ancient building near the water, I observed an inscription on a stone in the wall, commemorating the landing of Charles I. at that place in the year 1627, when he returned from Spain, after he had been to visit the Infanta of that kingdom; short as the inscription is, it celebrates the foreign travels of the young monarch who little imagined to what sufferings, and to what a fate, he was returning.

As I walked about the streets, I met,, every where, crowds of military men, both of the army and navy, by whom Portsmouth is said to be almost exclusively supported. At the inn where I dined I saw a great number of young midshipmen; some of them were tender boys who seemed more fit subjects for maternal care than for war and bloodshed; it is from such beginnings, however, that Blakes and Nelsons are formed, and I could easily imagine that I saw among them the future admirals of England.

While I was standing near one of the docks, in a town where I supposed myself wholly unknown, I was surprised to hear some one call me by name; the voice proceed

ed from an American captain whom I had known in London, and to whom I had, three weeks before, committed property and letters for America; his ship was now lying wind-bound at St. Helen's, which is off the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, about nine miles from Portsmouth. I embraced the opportunity to write again to my friends, but was sorry to find that my other letters which I had hoped were half across the Atlantic remained still in England.

While my dinner was preparing at the inn, I accidentally received an article of intelligence which filled me with solicitude, and determined me to relinquish the plan which I had formed of spending a few days more on my tour, and to return immediately to London. I therefore took a seat in the Night Telegraph, to set out at evening and travel all night. This was an arrangement which I regretted, for the country that one travels through in this way is lost to the purposes of observation and improve

ment.

No. LVI-RIDE TO LONDON.

Twilight view-Heavy laden coach-The devil's punch-bowl--A London sportsman.

As the shades of the evening were descending, we drove out of Portsmouth. It was nearly dark when we arrived on the high hills three or four miles from the town, whence, by day, there is a fine view of the harbour and ships, and of the Isle of Wight. We could see nothing

but indistinct images of masts and turrets, blended with smoke, and a fog which was beginning to hover over the low country.

My ride was rendered uncomfortable by a very full coach, and somewhat hazardous by the numbers on the roof, where there were no fewer than nineteen grown people, which, with eight inside, (two more than the stipulated number,) made twenty-seven persons for one carriage, besides the coachman and guard, which made twentynine; the postillion, although not on the coach, made the party thirty. The numbers on the roof were so great, that their limbs hung down on all sides around the coach, like icicles from the eves in a wintry day.

I have never known so many to ride on the roof in any former instance, and I acknowledge the story is less credible than true. The night was very warm for the season, and the air in the coach became soon very unpleasant, so that it was necessary to keep a window open.

At the borough of Petersfield, which is ten or twelve miles from Portsmouth, we stopped a few minutes, and with an additional pair of horses and a postillion, proceeded on our way.

The sky was clear, and a rising moon enabled me to see something of the country. It was almost universally hilly, and abounding with wild, uncultivated heath land. Between Liphook and Godalming we passed a curious excavation among the hills; it was a vast hollow, almost perfectly spherical, and is ludicrously called The Devil's Punch-bowl. Appellations of this kind are frequent, I believe, in most countries, where there is any thing in nature, quite out of the common way, especially if it border a little on the terrible, or on the ridiculous. Yon will

recollect in our country a rocky mountain covered with a thick forest which is called the Devil's Den, and the famous whirlpool of Hell-gate, near New-York, is well known.

Just before we came to the Punch-bowl, we were joined by a London sportsman, returning from a fortnight's adventures in the fields. He loaded our coach with game,

bags, and guns, and disgusted me extremely by an ostentatious display of the wonders he had performed, the Herculean labours he had achieved, and the great connections and noble intimacies to which he had been led by his taste for sporting. My Lord Darby's fox-hounds, Mr. Such-aone's harriers, and my Lord Spencer's stag-hounds, were all at his disposal; at the same time he told us a great deal of his running a hare down in fine style, and all this decorated with abundance of "strange oaths." He was evidently of the cockney breed, and, in all probability, had never been acquainted even with the dogs of the noblemen whose names he used so freely.

Tired with this tedious history of his frivolous, not to say cruel pursuits, and disgusted with his vanity, I answered his animated narrations, only with Ohs! Ahs! and Indeed! and, pulling my night-cap over my face, succeeded in procuring a little respite by sleep, from a kind of entertainment, which, on account of the anxious state of my mind, was, at that time; particularly unpleas

ant.

We passed through Kingston upon Thames before the dawning of the day; I regretted the circumstance, as I wished to see a place which is so famous in the history of England. The full light of morning found us at Esher, sixteen miles from London, and passing along by Rich

mond Park, and through scenes of verdure and beauty, in a good degree familiar to me before, we arrived in town at nine o'clock in the morning.

No. LVII.-A FEW DAYS IN LONDON.

The Custom-house-Bug destroyer to his Majesty-An Adventurer-Preparations for going to the Continent-Discouraging appearances Billingsgate.

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.

Sept. 19.-My whole time since I last arrived in London, has been devoted to details of business, which would be equally uninteresting to you in the narration, as they have been laborious to me in the execution. They have all been directed towards one object, that is, a shipment which I am about making for America.

In prosecution of this object, I was led this morning to the Custom-house of London. It is situated on the Thames, a little above the Tower. The building is spacious and convenient, having extensive ware-houses below, for the reception of goods, till they can be removed by the merchants. Above is a very long room, in which most of the business is done. When you consider how vast the commerce of this port is, you will readily believe that this room must present a scene of great bustle and hurry; I never have seen so much apparent confusion in any place where business is transacted, and yet there was a real principle of order running through and directing the whole, because every officer knew his own duty, and